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An unvaccinated Alabama board member who opposed mask warrants and called vaccines of personal choice fights COVID-19-related pneumonia.
Decatur city councilor Hunter Pepper, 19, was hospitalized on September 16 after suffering complications from the virus.
The politician, who has vowed to “fight to the bitter end” against mandatory face coverings, said yesterday “it’s terrible that you can’t breathe”.
Pepper shared his diagnosis on Facebook, where he said he was being treated at Decatur Morgan Hospital for breathing difficulties.
“Well, it finally happened to me,” he said. ‘… Everything about me wants to tell me it’s something different but every time I look it’s’ Covid this, Covid that’ and it terrified me and my family.
“The media continue to report on Covid-19 and explain ‘death’ every time they do so. It’s honestly terrifying to me but I have faith in the Lord. Maybe it will clear up soon and the symptoms of this disease will not progress, as I can tell you, it is terrible that you cannot breathe.
City Councilor Hunter Pepper, who has COVID-19, says “it’s terrible not being able to breathe”
Pepper was elected to city council last year and was quick to condemn mask terms.
“I think the seat belt should be your choice,” Pepper said in an April 9 council vote to repeal the requirement to cover the face of the area.
“It comes down to masks, I think wearing a mask should be my choice.”
19-year-old who opposed mandatory mask warrants says he now has COVID pneumonia
Pepper, the youngest elected to the local city council, also opposes compulsory vaccines.
He said in a previous post on Facebook that inoculations should be optional.
“I will say that if you choose to get the vaccine, it is your choice,” he said in a July 24 article. “I will NEVER blame an individual for something we cannot stop.
‘… .I will NEVER push you something or tell you that you are (sic) not a great member of society (the kind of live that Governor Ivey did yesterday) because I disagree with that.’
Pepper compared mandatory masks to seat belt laws, saying he believes both should be optional
In Alabama, where 41% of residents are fully vaccinated, 72 people have died from the virus in the last day.
Data from Johns Hopkins University indicates that 12,856 Alabamians have succumbed to the virus since the start of the pandemic.
A recent increase in the number of cases has strained hospitals and left a shortage of available intensive care unit (ICU) beds.
Ray DeMonia, 73, from Cullman, Alabama
Alabama’s intensive care beds were at 101% of capacity last week, according to the most recent data from Johns Hopkins, with COVID-19 patients accounting for half of available beds.
Earlier this month, an Alabama man died of heart failure after being turned away from 43 hospitals in three southern states that were overrun with COVID patients.
Ray DeMonia, 73, was eventually admitted to a hospital in Meridian, Mississippi, 200 miles from his home in Cullman, Alabama, but was too ill to be saved and died on September 1.
Board member Pepper said he was optimistic he would be back to work on Monday.
“If I’m doing well enough I’ll attend the meeting by phone, because I’ll call the meeting and vote by phone, again, if I’m doing well enough,” he said, thanking subscribers for their “thoughts and prayers.”
Data shows COVID-19 patients take up half of available intensive care unit beds in Alabama
Some other board members called on Pepper to step down earlier this year after learning about a 2018 social media post where he joked about crushing Black Lives Matter protesters.
Pepper, who was 16 at the time, posted about people protesting the police shooting of an armed black man in Birmingham, who was mistaken for a gunman in an earlier shooting in a mall.
Pepper commented, “See I have to go shopping there next week and we went to play a game called Red Rover Red Rover, you fools got run over!”
He then apologized for the message, calling it “very ignorant”.
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